Live Butterfly Garden At a Glance: Age: 4 years and up Requirements: Larvae, which are available with the included mail-in coupon ($5 shipping and handling required; ships to all U.S. states except Hawaii). Warranty: Insect Lore guarantees that at least 3 of the 5 butterfly larvae sent through the mail will metamorphose into adult butterflies.

Watch larvae turn into butterflies! View larger.

12-inch habitat, guide, dropper, and coupon. View larger.

Live Caterpillars Mailed Directly to You
The Butterfly Garden comes with a coupon to send away for five caterpillars. The caterpillars are hatched from eggs in a butterfly nursery and mailed to your home in a special clear container, complete with caterpillar food.

Live caterpillars and food

Keeping the caterpillars out of direct sunlight, children can watch them eat, grow, and after seven to ten days, form their chrysalides and begin their transformation into butterflies. The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly normally takes two to three weeks: seven to ten days in caterpillar stage, and seven to ten days in chrysalis stage. Insect Lore guarantees that at least three of the five caterpillars you receive will grow into adult butterflies.

Observe the Metamorphosis Up Close
The Butterfly Garden comes with a pop-up butterfly observation habitat, which is a cylindrical mesh container measuring 12 inches tall. Once the caterpillars become chrysalides, they can be transferred to the habitat, where they will complete their transformation into adult Painted Lady butterflies. Children will be excited to keep a close eye on the changing chrysalides and watch this seemingly magical metamorphosis.

Your Very Own Butterflies
Once the butterflies emerge, children can have lots of fun feeding them and watching them eat. The kit comes with a dropper for squeezing sugar water into the habitat for the butterflies to drink. It is recommended that flowers be placed in the habitat for the butterflies to rest on while they enjoy their meals. Kids will delight in observing the butterflies unfurl their proboscises to suck up the sugar water.

If you receive your butterflies during warmer weather, when temperatures are above 55 degrees, you can experience the excitement of releasing the butterflies into the wild. Caterpillars are available for delivery year-round, so if yours arrive in a colder month, you can keep your fully-grown butterflies in the mesh habitat for their lifespan, which is about two to four weeks.

Additional mail-in certificates are available for order, so once you've released your butterflies, you can reuse the Butterfly Garden and experience the magic of metamorphosis again and again.

What's in the Box
Mesh butterfly habitat, feeding dropper, activity guide, complete instructions, and mail-in coupon for five caterpillars, and food.

Toy: See butterfly metamorphosis up close.Reusable, collapsible habitat., Includes feeder.Complete instructions included., Includes mail-in voucher for five butterfly larvae and special food. ($5.00 fee for processing), Witness one of nature's most spectacular transformations up close., Just mail in the included coupon for larvae and food.
Company: Insect Lore
List Price: $24.99
Amazon Price: $9.59

On the Blu-ray

Sleeping Beauty was the last and most lavish of Walt Disney's animated fairy tales. He told the artists not to hurry and to give him "a moving illustration": The film required almost four and one-half years and one million finished drawings. Instead of the 19th century storybook illustrations that had influenced the look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the artists adapted the flattened perspective and jewel-like colors of 15th century French illuminated manuscripts. The results remain unmatched for sheer visual opulence. However, Sleeping Beauty suffers from a weak story: the vision of an ageless princess slumbering in a vine-shrouded tower was replaced with elements of Snow White and a boy-meets-girl musical. The evil Maleficent and the three Good Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) dominate the film, rather than Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. Sleeping Beauty was originally released in 70mm, and the Blu-ray edition restores the film to its original splendor. (Many earlier releases trimmed the wide-screen images and/or muted the glowing palatte.) The Bonus DVD looks good on a flat screen monitor, but it pales in comparison to the richness of the Blu-ray. In addition to the commentaries and a making-of documentary, the set includes myriad extras that vary widely in quality. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy the recreation of the old Sleeping Beauty's Castle attraction in Disneyland, and the TV program "Four Artists Paint One Tree" provides a welcome showcase for key talents from the film. But the CG animation of the dragon and the voice imitations of the Good Fairies fail to capture the magic of the originals in the "Dragon Encounter"; the "Maleficent's Challenge Game"--a hi-tech Twenty Questions--sounds only vaguely like the redoubtable sorceress. The BD-Live features require an awful lot of bother: after wading through (or ignoring) 130 screens of legalese, participants must enter their Social Security number or other personal information in the drawn-out sign-on process. Once that's finally done, viewers can send special messages to pop up during the film, chat online with others who are watching, and view it in synch with others. The question is whether or not you want to. (Rated G: violence) --Charles Solomon




Stills from Sleeping Beauty (Click for larger image)

Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.